David Heinemeier Hansson is the creator of Ruby on Rails, partner at 37signals, and among may things a race car driver.

David Heinemeier

He is really brilliant, build some come really cool products using Ruby on Rails and has some pretty interesting ideas and views about business schools, starting companies, running them and building products that bring value. Read the 13 points and see below for the link to the presentation he did in January 2012 at Standford Unversity Business School. He himself went to Copenhagen Business School and wasted about 96.7% of the time he spent there during the 3 years that last his bachelor degree.

Here is part of what he says:

01– All the things your learn at Business school are for you. They’re not going to impress anybody else.
02– When you come out of business school, your writing sucks, because it has been targeting at pleasing professors who want to see you demonstrate theories and write a certain amount of work, x number of words, etc..
03- Most planning (in a very small company) is guessing. And actually, Planning is not just guessing…it’s harmful guessing because it’s a waste of time.
04– Realize that most decisions in a small business and incredibly temporary. What matters most is starting. Just get going.
05– As a small business, move away from Venture Capital. You’re spending other people’s money and care less about it. When it’s your own money, you want to make more of it faster.
06- Worst thing for a business is when you have no constraints…when you have as long as the timeline as those 5 million VC money will carry you.
07– The urgency you get from spending your own money and earning your own money is the most powerful driving force for an entrepreneur.
08– There is tragic misconception that if you start a business by yourself, you have to be a workaholic and work 60 to 100 hours a week because that’s the only way you can succeed. No, that’s false.
09– Forget the 80 hours week work. That’s bullshit. Great ideas matters. Less execution matters. And all that comes from a well-rested mind.
10– Going straight from college into management is a terrible idea…
11– There is no inherent correlation between revenues and employee count. There is no inherent correlation between number of stupid policies and revenue growth.
12– Revenues doesn’t mean anything….Profits mean something.
13- If you have a drastic cost structure than your competitors, you can charge drastically less.

And you can learn a lot more in his presentation here.

And also, it’s Monday July 23rd 2012, about 6AM, so I wish you all a great week !

Pat.